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Another Pair of Socks

I love these socks:

Lizzy Socks - Finished Lizzy Socks - Finished!

Start date: October 3
Finish date: October 17
Pattern used: Lizzy
Yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight
Needles: Knitpicks US 2 DPNs
Notes: I did change the motif a little – I really don’t like to knit a p3tog or whatever that was up on line 13 or so of the chart, so I just fudged it around so I didn’t have to, and I don’t think you can really tell the difference. I also added a motif on the toe and extended the ribbing to the toe until grafting. I really like them! They fit nicely too, and I think I’ll be making another pair, though with the original toe.

Tomorrow I am getting together with Malvina to give her the orange socks! Today I went to the Yarn Boutique and picked up a couple of the little packets of Soak for her to wash them in. Technically you can machine wash Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, but I am finding that the less you machine wash handmade socks the better. (I know, right? I drank the koolaid, I guess.)

I looked on my Flickr account and I discovered that to date I have completed 12 projects this year! That is doing pretty good. Last year I finished 15 items, and two of them were sweaters. This year has mostly been socks, but I did make the Swallowtail Shawl, which was pretty fun. With the fall weather coming to town (not so’s you’d notice today, it’s a balmy 77°) I am feeling some hat mojo return, so I will be casting on for a hat in some delish grapey-purple Manos de Uruguay today I think. I also have a ton of Malabrigo I’ve been collecting, so I think I might try Koolhaas or similar in the sealing wax colorway.

I am still pondering the next socks I will cast on, which will be for Abby in Collinette Jitterbug, in the “Jewel” colorway.

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Things I Have You Wish You Did

This whole weather change and lack of daylight and general crankiness has really got me out of sorts this week. Luckily, I have this awesome custom-handmade quilt to get me through seasonal affective disorder:

quilty goodness

You will notice how I am strategically holding the quilt upwards so as to hide the crap heap that is my room. I have a lot of clothes/yarn/jewelry/books/magazines/lamps. And you don’t need to see that. And pretend I washed my face.

Now: to finish the Lizzy socks (ten more toe rows), start some laundry, and decide what socks to knit the sibling for this most fabulous quilt. (Probably blue.)

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What Goes Around

So, that anticlimactic sound you hear is me paying off my credit cards.

Two years and $9000 later, I am free of credit card debt! Woo hoo! Honestly, I am not even sure what I bought, other than some furniture for the apartment, which amounted to about $1000. What I bought with the rest? Anybody’s guess.

I definitely learned my lesson, too. Never buy what you can’t afford to pay back. Don’t live outside your means. Just because you want it, doesn’t mean you need it.

And so on and so forth.

I’m knitting on socks:

Lizzy Socks

These are Lizzy socks by Stephanie van der Linden (rav link). I am knitting them out of Socks That Rock lightweight in the Sapphire colorway. Even though STR is not my favorite yarn as it felts/fuzzes up like a mofo, it certainly comes in awesome colors, and I had this in my stash, already wound and ready to go. The second sock is actually a lot farther along – I’ve turned the heel and have completed the first motif on the instep.

The next socks in the queue will be for my sister.  She finished my quilt that she’s been working on for 1.5 years, and I owe her! She decided on her own to make me the quilt when I said, jokingly, that I would love a handmade quilt in “all the colors of the ocean” and the next thing I knew, she had bought fabric and was going at it gangbusters. I didn’t think that was extremely fair for me to get a free, awesome quilt, so I said I’d make her some socks/small items in exchange. She wants some leaf socks, so I’ll make her a pair of those, and I also want to make her some fun fair isle mittens.